


Old Dogs

by radsnaggle



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alcohol, And some language, Multi, Post-Canon, also i love brad, and needed to write it, ive had this idea for a little while, so hes there, spoilers thru ep 69, this is just some good family fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 09:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12339816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radsnaggle/pseuds/radsnaggle
Summary: You like drunk IPRE members being silly? You like Brad Bradson? Well, I have the story for you! It's this one. Please read it.





	Old Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> this was meant to be a short drabble but here we are

It had been roughly five years since the Day of Story and Song. The Bureau of Balance—now called the Bureau of Benevolence—had successfully worked to help rebuild Faerun since its rebranding. Some areas had been entirely dissolved from the onslaught of the Hunger, but everyone, not only the Bureau, had felt an immense amount of hope after that day so the work went by quickly with everyone pitching in a hand where they could. Refuge, being the town with the most recent experience in rebuilding a town, helped as much as they could, where they could. Having the world end as you know it but still continue on as if nothing changed is distressful to say the least.

 

Lup and Barry, after finalizing their deal with the Raven Queen, went to work alongside Kravitz to maintain the natural order of life and death. The irony of their position was not lost on the two. Either way, they were both happy in ways they hadn’t experienced in a long time. If they really thought about it, they hadn’t felt this sort of contentment since before they left on the Starblaster all those years ago. After that, it had quickly become a mad dash for safety from one plane to the next. But now they felt like they’ve finally made a home for themselves, Lup jokingly told Barry to miss her with that nerd shit when he announced this revelation to her. She felt the same way, of course, and readily told him so afterwards, but she just needed to goof with him first. Her reasoning was that she was making up for all the time they’d spent apart. He would just smile, feeling his heart swell in his chest.

 

Davenport had continued his voyages from port town to port town over these years, coming back into the mainland whenever there was a major celebration happening. The day he departed, everyone from the Bureau and the IPRE was there to see him off. Many people were misty eyed, but most out of all of them was Angus McDonald. They used to spend hours together in amicable silence as Angus would research a case; they grew very close. When Angus got accepted to Lucas Miller’s new school, Davenport made sure to come back and surprise Angus with a congratulation party on his boat. Mookie almost jumped off the side many times. Davenport vowed to never again have a party on his boat.

 

After the first rounds of rebuilding came to a close, Avi very firmly told Lucretia she was, as of five minutes ago, on vacation. She chuckled at him before nodding and going to her quarters to pack some clothes and small possessions, arriving at Magnus’ doorstep a few hours later—she didn’t actually know where he set up his shop, so a lot of back and forth on their Stones of Farspeech happened before she was cannon blasted to his house. Over time, she found herself regularly going between the Bureau and Magnus’ house. No matter how many offers he made to train a dog for her own specific needs, she always declined. She would always end it by asking why she would need to come down to visit him if she already had her own dog on the moon. He would always remind her that it’s a fake moon and the Bureau does plenty of work on the ground nowadays.

 

It wasn’t that Merle became estranged from the rest of his friends, he just didn’t have much time between being the Earl of Bottlenose Cove, running his adventuring camp, and being a parent. He would, though, periodically send them all various pieces of jewelry he had made from debris that would drift onto the sands of his newly rebuilt town. His favorite part about moving to Bottlenose Cove was watching Lord Artemis Sterling teach himself how to build a bar and that the bar was named after the legendary singer, Kenny Chesney. His ass tattoo becomes slightly less disconcerting for people when they also hear about his bar. Merle’s least favorite thing since the move was watching Mookie try to fling himself into the ocean whenever they’d return to town after a good adventuring trip. He knew that beach dwarves weren’t exactly normal as far as dwarven behavior goes, but flinging yourself into the ocean? No, that’s a new one. Luckily, Mavis was quick enough to catch him.

 

Taako surprisingly found himself settling down. He did go on numerous press junket tour to promote the Taako brand throughout the year, but for the first time in a long time he had a home to come back to. When Kravitz wasn’t over, Taako found himself in long talks with Angus over their Stones of Farspeech. He would never admit it, but Angus had become a little brother to him and he was going to make sure that he would be raised with all the love and compassion that wasn’t afforded to him and Lup. Taako lived such a sweet domestic life now, sometimes he swore he could feel his teeth ache. Kravitz would sometimes tease Taako about how quickly he’d adapted to such domesticity. He never answered back, but his ears would twitch from the comebacks he slowly saved up. The fact was, Taako knew how true Kravitz’s words were and just didn’t feel the need to argue how rowdy he still was or was not. Also, it was just more fun to expend all those pent-up insults on reminding his sister she’s dating a nerd which makes her a nerd by extension.

 

Magnus had singlehandedly put Raven’s Roost back on the map over these five years, starting with building the _Hammer and Tails_ and working his way through cottages and inns. The first few houses started out as lodgings for the people he was training dogs for. Some people never left, though, and over time others just came and settled into their small, unusually formed community. He was more than okay with it, though. Raven’s Roost deserved the second chance it was being given. Magnus was always most happy when his friends came around, though Lucretia was the one to frequent the most. When Lup would come over, Magnus would find her Mage Hand-ing all of his dogs into roughly a circular shape before crawling in the middle of them. The first time he asked her why she does her weird dog wrangling thing, her muffled reply was that she missed the sensory inputs a body has—also dogs. She missed dogs. If Barry or Kravitz stopped by in their hunt for her, Magnus would just silently point to the pile of puppies. After the first seven times, they didn’t even bother with formalities anymore, instead, they would head straight for the pile, pluck out the dejected elf, nod to Magnus, and leave to their next job. Occasionally, Lup would call him a traitor for variety.

 

The world was doing pretty alright, by all accounts. Lord Artemis Sterling, and all of Neverwinter really, had decided early on in the reconstruction efforts to fund and host an annual celebration on the anniversary of the Day of Story and Song. He had asked Lucretia to help put it together, who then delineated the responsibility to former HR employee for the Bureau of Balance, Brad Bradson. For someone who looks like the embodiment of a scrapbooking class, Brad new how to throw a memorable party, that is, if people could remember it. Brad’s homebrewed beer was a party favorite. Before the first anniversary, Lucretia had to assure the rest of her IPRE friends that this festival wasn’t for some sort of hero worship, but a way to celebrate life and Faerun’s collective choice to fight for their right to live. Taako was alright with the hero worship, but agreed to attend anyway after Magnus pinched his arm. Five years later, however, the Story and Song festival had become more anticipated than even the Midsummer Solstice celebration.

 

The gang was all in the town square of Neverwinter where most of the vendors had set up shop, the rest of the vendors bled into the side streets spreading out from the square. Brad was there, of course, at the most central point in the square. After the first festival, Artemis saw how much people seemed to enjoy the orc’s beer and insisted he take such prime vendor real estate at all the future festivals. Since the festival didn’t operate under a monetary system, having “prime vendor real estate” just meant that people could find you easily. The only money that was ever given was through donation and tip jars. Taako, now at the front of Brad’s Brew’s queue, tipped Brad in half-insulting compliments. Brad—well, Brad couldn’t make head or tails out of them. So Taako always got his drink with a confused “have a nice festival” punctuating the exchange.

 

“Bradson, how do you get this brew to taste so not shit?” Lup chirped, stepping up for her drink. “Because I know what Taako and I do when the food just isn’t coming together, but I want to hear from you, straight-laced Mister Bradson.” She pointed a slightly accusatory finger at him. He gulped.

 

“Well, I, uh, talk a lot during the brewing process,” Another gulp, a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his face. It wasn’t even hot out.

 

“My guy, Bradson!” Lup quickly leaned in over the table separating the two to whisper in his face. “You are handing out arcane beer!” She smiled smugly, grabbed her beer and walked to the table Kravitz had saved them. After sharing her new secret with Magnus, Merle, Kravitz, and Barry, a laugh erupted from them that caused Brad to grimace.

 

“Don’t pay them any mind, Brad. She only teases you because she feels comfortable with you.” Lucretia grabbed both her and Davenport’s drinks before turning to walk to their table, hooking an arm through Taako’s to move him away from the embarrassed bard. Davenport had mumbled something about how he should see how they treat him as he trailed behind the duo. They left the poor orc visibly shaken and the festival had hardly started.

 

As the festival went on and the sun began to set behind the skyline of Neverwinter, the celebration started picking up in its energy. Different musicians started playing their sets across the city at different stages and the performers who had been walking the festival streets started getting more daring in their stunts. The patrons of the festival had, by now, a couple drinks in their systems’ and good food in their stomachs’. Music was flooding the air and twinkling lights lit the streets. A cool breeze occasionally drifted through the city, fluttering the decorative banners in its wake. People were dancing and laughing and smiling and spirits were high.

 

Taako had dragged Kravitz, and then later Lup when Kravitz refused to get up from his seat on the bench, to dance with him near the closest stage to their table. Merle was very insistent that they do not lose their table because it was the best one location-wise so the dancing never strayed far from it. Taako was even more insistent that he would not be seen dancing with Merle—not that Merle was a bad dancer, just not one Taako wants to be around—so Merle had been elected to guard their table. Eventually, however, the whole group was bound to the table because no one else would dance with Taako for fear of falling over. If the number of empty cups littering the tabletop wasn’t an indication to the level of inebriation they all were under, Lucretia had begun to get uncharacteristically giggly and Merle was doing his Fantasy _Braveheart_ impressions.

 

“You all are lightweights. Three of Bradathon’s magically spiked homebrews and dancing becomes too much for you.” Taako slumped on their table. “You’d have thought over one hundred years of friendship would mean more than your reputations.” Kravitz patted his boyfriend’s hand apologetically.

 

“Speak of the devil.” Barry said as he took off his glasses to clean them. Brad smiled a toothy grin and he walked towards their table.

 

“Bradory, we’re gonna dance because I’ve got boogie fever and my friends have tiny, baby livers.” Taako was dragging the tall orc off before he could even greet the table.

 

“You're just trying to make us feel bad. Talk about being a baby, he doesn’t even like Brad.” Merle huffed, a hiccup clipping off his sentence.

 

“Can’t teach an old dog new tricks, buckos!” Taako called over his shoulder before being lost in the crowd. Magnus’ eyebrow raised minutely.

 

“How did he even hear that?” Lucretia giggled.

 

“We got crazy elf ears, my dude—can hear for miles,” Lup said before popping a fry in her mouth. They were lukewarm at best and she had to wrestle her brain into agreeing to the idea of not setting them on fire to remedy the issue.

 

An hour passed before Taako took his cue to stop dragging poor festival goers into a dancing frenzy and settle down at the table; Brad had managed to make it back to his stand after two dances with Taako. The dance-crazed elf returned to his, thankfully, saved space on the bench in between Lup and Kravitz, his head resting on his sister’s back as she half-laid on the table and his hand entwined with his boyfriend’s. Unfortunately for everyone, Merle had moved on to singing Kenny Chesney songs over the last couple refills of Brad’s magic beers.

 

“Merle, I know you’re having fun, but if I have to listen to ‘She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy’ one more time, I will lose all my bardic abilities.” Brad said through a painfully forced smile.

 

“Oh shit, Bradson, didn’t know you left your spot at the _normal_ brewery,” Lup winked in Brad’s direction, "to hang with the cool kids." Lup was smashed. Her digs weren’t even clever anymore. Merle, who looked oddly contemplative, chimed in before Lup could continue her jabs at Brad.

 

“You know, at my age, it’s like, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, right? I’m afraid you’re losin’ your bardic magic stuff tonight, bud.” Merle gave a big laugh, catching on to the apparent phrase of the night, and wiped away some fake tears. Magnus’ eye twitched.

 

“That was very funny, old man, but I want to hear more about why Bradexander spiked the festival beer.” Taako lifted his head off of Lup to stare into Brad’s eyes, a lazy smile lifting the corners of his lips. It wasn’t an intense stare, by any stretch of the imagination, but Brad had begun to sweat again.

 

“It seems as though we’ve all jumped to some conclusions tonight—” Brad fumbled with his hands before Davenport interjected.

 

“So, you didn’t lace our beer with magic?”

 

“That is exactly what I’m saying.” Brad exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

 

“The whole thing about talking a lot while you brew is, what? A pep talk?” Taako smiled again.

 

“Yes. Brewing is an arduous process and sometimes I need a little extra motivation to keep me excited about the final product. Making enough for a festival is more difficult than it may sound, you know.” Brad’s speech sounded less assured than what it normally did, embarrassed about admitting he uses his skills to give himself pep talks.

 

“Boring,” Taako fake yawned. “I thought Bradington finally shed some of that Fantasy Gap exterior and got cool.”

 

“I, for one, am glad to know we all didn’t imbibe copious amounts of arcanically enhanced beer.” Lucretia offered a reassuring smile, her words slightly blending together, to the orc who was patting his forehead with a handkerchief he pulled from his shirt pocket.

 

The group conversed for a while longer, knowing that the inn they were staying in was in the town square they hadn’t moved from all evening. Well, the inn that some of them were staying in; Kravitz, Lup, and Barry could make temporal rifts they could jump through, and while Taako liked to tease them for being goth nerds, he did love the free taxi home. But it was getting late, Davenport punctuating this with a big yawn, and they had sobered up enough to confidently walk to their inn. Angus, who had immediately crashed into the bed in his assigned room upon arriving in Neverwinter, came downstairs after hearing the relatively loud voices of his friends in the lobby.

 

Wiping sleep from his eyes, the boy detective apologetically smiled at his friends. “Sorry I fell asleep before the festival started, sirs and ladies, I was just so dang tired.” His head reached about up to Magnus’ shoulder now, but his boyish grin was just the same as when they first met him on the Rockport Limited all those years ago.

 

“It’s no problem, little guy. How’d those midterms go?” Magnus ruffled Angus’ hair as Taako handed him a small pinwheel he’d saved from one of the vendors they’d passed on their way in earlier that day.

 

“I did very well, thank you for asking! Were you all heading to your rooms?” Angus was still very tired, though he very much wanted to spend more time with his family.

 

“Yeah, sorry, my dude. Some people here, I won’t name any names, needs to gets them some beauty sleep.” Taako squeezed Kravitz’s side where he had his arm wrapped around it.

 

Hugs and goodbyes and promises to catch up later were made between all of them before a round of idle chitchat settled in, Brad having left to clean his booth long before they left for the inn. Somewhere a clock chimed that it was quarter to one in the morning. They’d been out since about six that evening. No matter how much they’d like to think they could still party all night and show up for work the next day, that was just not the case anymore. Goodbyes were seriously said this time before Davenport announced he’d be going on another sea voyage within the next week. Another round of hugs and Angus asking if he really has to go so soon.

 

“Sailing is sort of just who I am, kiddo. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks and I’ve accepted that. It feels weird to be away from that for too long.” Davenport smiled warmly at the faces of the people he held so dear to him. More hugs and a few more laughs and then everyone really was ready to head off for the night.

 

“Oh!” Magnus yelled before anyone left. “I feel like I should mention, just from a professional point of view, you absolutely can teach old dogs new tricks. I do it all the time. It’s kind of my job.” With that, Magnus turned and bounded the stairs to his room, glad to finally get that off his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> hey yeah i havent dabbled in fanfic in years so forgive me if this is real heckin clumsy. if you enjoyed it tho tell me bc i need that validation
> 
> anyway, thank you.
> 
> i love you.


End file.
